Improvement in hay-knives



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEm EEANCIs J. EIs'CHEE, OE HAMILTON, AssIeNoE TO HIMsELE AND JOHN E. EEENING, OE CINCINNATI, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN HAY-KNIVES.

Speciiication forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,765, dated June 19, 1866.

To all lwhom t may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANCIS J. FISCHER, of Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, have invented a new and Improved Hay-Knife; and I do hereby declare the following to bc a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making a part of this speoication.

My invention relates to the class of instruments employed for cutting hay in the rick or stack. Y

A is a straight shaft, which may be round, or nearly so, at its upper part, and somewhat flattened toward its lower part., whence it expands in the plane ot' its atness, so as to take the form of two angularly-diverging blades, B B', whose inner edges, b b', are in right lines, which diverge at an angle of sixty degrees, or thereabout, and are brought to a sharp knifeedge, while the exterior edges, b', are curved in the manner set forth. At the liunction of the said edges b b' is a third blade, U, much shorter tha-n the blades B B', and double-edged or of lancet form.

The basils or chaint'ered portions of` the blades B, B', and C are whollyon one side, the other side being perfectly dat.

`D and E are handles, which being grasped by the operator enables him to push the in` strument down into the body of hay, so as to sever the portion desired.

It will be observed that by the above act a portion of the hay will be gathered between the edges b and b', and whose descent operates to sever the stalks; but where the intermediate blade, U, is absent too much labor devolves on the extreme inner angle, owing in part to the crowding ot the entire uncut portion into that part and in part to the edge of the knife at that part pressing directly down on the hay instead of gliding along it with a carvin g action, as is the case with the edges b b'. This defect I completely remedy by the provision of my central lancet-forined blade, C, which, piercing the body of hay at its densest portion, cuts its way into it in two directions in cooperation with the blades B B', so as to enable the cutting to be effected at this part as easily as elsewhere.

I claim herein as new and of inyinvention- The hayknife constructed, as described, with a shank, A, diverging blades B B', and a short middle blade, C, the whole adapted to cutting hay from the stack, substantially as described.

In testimony ot' which invention I hereunto set myhand.

F. J. FISCHER.

Witnesses:

GEO. H. KNIGHT, JAMES H.-LAYMAN. 

